Krabi – Ton Sia
Ton Sia is the type of place that rock climbers dream about because of all the surrounding cliffs. It is one of the cheapest and least developed beach on Krabi's mainland. It is very isolated and no one is in a hurry here. The electricity only runs from about 6-7pm until 5am when even your bungalow fan turns off...but hey you are already sleeping so not a problem.
We arrive here to this rock climbing heaven on Tuesday after taking many different ways to get here. First we start with an overnight train from bangkok to Surat Thani (place where most transfers take place. We arrive in Surat Thani and transfer to a double decker bus which is to take us to Krabi. We end up taking the double decker bus to another bus which we got to from some dirt road. i find here in thailand you can never get directly to where you want to go...it is like they have a travel mafia that takes you to another person wanting your money...you cant get there from here...seems to be the motto here...but hey they are spreading the wealth and really you pay a package deal so it is not bad...you just never arrive what time they say you are going to when you book it...you just have to know this not get frustrated and just go with the flow...you will get there eventually. When we finally arrive on Ton Sai beach and see how secluded it is and know we have made the right choice. Like i said no one is in a rush here and the electricity only runs during curtain hours...that includes the internet also. But really that is all you need...you are not here to stay in your bungalow. Kelly and I got ourselves a little bungalow for 300bht/night that is only $9...sweet! Now dont get me wrong this bungalow is made of wood it only has one bed...yes we share (we each have our own sleep sheet)...a fan...a cold shower and a toilet. Now the toilets here to not flush you need to pure a bucket of water down to do it...and dont forget to bring your own toilet paper because thai people use a spray not paper...yes it takes some getting used to...
The first day I took rock-climbing lesions and loved it…I
climbed what they call the 123 wall.
I think I have found my new love…I can be the monkey that I am. My instructor was Dee and I also went
with a girl named Caroline. We
made an entire day of it leaving at 10am and not returning to our lil beach
until after sunset. After
about 3 climbs we chilled on the beach, fed the monkeys that came down from the
hills, ate some corn on the beach…it was great. Then dee decided that he would take us to the cave. It was amazing it was pitch black and
none of us had our headlamps but we used our camera screens for what little
light they gave. We were lucky
that we had a local as our guide cause I don’t if we would have made it without
him. When you finally get to the
top of the cave after using many ropes and ladders that were set up inside the
view from the top is so breath taking.
I knew that Kelly would love to see this so I started to think we need
another day here. When I got back
we discussed it and decided we loved it here so much that we would stay.
Kelly and I find a bar that has a tv and ask them to turn on bbc news so we can see who won the election...we have been dying since we are a day ahead...YES OBAMA!!! you have to see how excited we were...we cried listening to his speech and you would be amazing at how many foreigners were there cheering with us and congratulating us...yes i am now proud to be an american!
That night the Viking bar, which we have come to love the
people here, had a grand opening party.
It was so great. I met
about seven people from the states, which does not usually happen, it is mostly
people from other countries. I am
finding mostly from germany, Australia, England, new zeland. I did however meet 4 people from new
Hampshire and one even went to central high school, what are the changes of
that. Crazy I say.
On day three Kelly and I went to phanang beach and just
chilled on the beach. Phanaag beach has beautiful sands with crystal blue water with cliffs all around. We ate pad thai from the long boats in the water...some of the best i have yet to have here in thailand. After a day of sun (and let me tell you it is strong) I took Kelly and Robert from Germany to the cave, which we were prepared for since I brought
my headlamp. This was the same
cave that dee took me to the day before…much easier with a headlamp.
Every night I hang out at the Viking bar with John & Erlisa from Wales, Josh and Matathis from Germany...What a fun group we are.
